If you’re new to Disney, or you’re a more carefree Seconds-to-Go type traveler, you may have never heard of the Disney free dining promotion. If so, you’re probably wondering what free dining at Disney entails and if it’s really the exciting deal the name would suggest.
Well, stick with us. We’re about to explain what the Disney free dining promotion is, how to get it and whether it’s really worth booking it over other special promotions.
However, before we get started, if you’re new to dining at Disney World, you may want to take a look at our complete guide to Disney World Dining and also brush up on what the dining plan entails in our comprehensive guide to Disney Dining Plan 2024.
Here is what you’ll find in this article:
First Step, Understanding the Disney Dining Plan
When booking an onsite resort at Disney World (see list below), you’ll be presented with the option to book a room-only or package reservation.
A room-only reservation is just what it implies. You book a hotel room at the resort of your choice and pay for anything else related to your vacation separately.
Booking a Disney World vacation package allows you to include the cost of park tickets with your room reservation and to opt for a Disney dining plan.
There are 2 different Disney dining plans offered in 2024: the Quick-Service Dining Plan and the Disney Dining Plan (all caps).
Disney’s Quick-Service Dining Plan includes:
- 2 quick service dining meals (carry-out service)
- 1 snack per day
- 1 drink per person for each meal, with alcoholic libations available for guests over 21
- Refillable drink mug (can only be filled at the resort where you are staying)
Each item above is included for each person on your reservation for each night of your stay.
To spice up your dining at Disney World with an extra dose of magic, you can also opt for the Disney Dining Plan. This option elevate your experience to includes the following for each night of your stay:
- 1 quick service meal per person
- 1 table service meal per person
- 1 drink per person at each meal, with alcoholic libations available for guests over 21
- 1 snack or drink per person
- Refillable drink mug (can only be filled at the resort where you are staying)
Disney doesn’t readily publish the cost of the different plans, but according to our recent calculations, the Quick Service option will run you $57.01 for an adult and $23.83 for children under 10 per day. Cost for the Disney Dining Plan is $94.28 per adult and $29.69 per child under 10 per day. For this plan, you can expect to fund gratuities for table service meals out of pocket.
What Is Disney Free Dining?
The Disney free dining offer is a rare bird. It’s usually only offered once per year to fill hotel vacancies.
Before the COVID-19 panademic shut down the parks and eliminated programs like the Disney dining plan, we saw this offer commonly available during the fall. With the rollout of the new Disney dining plan in 2024, we were pleasantly surprised to see that free dining at Disney was offered for summer dates. Better yet, this offer was announed at the beginning of the year, giving travelers a nice runway of time to book and prepare for their trip.
While the details of the Disney free dining offer have varied from one year to the next, the concept is essentially the same. Guests who book a Disney World vacation package with theme park tickets will receive one of the dining plans in the non-discounted cost of their package reservation.
In 2024, guests who book the Disney+ Subscriber Free Dining Offer at a value resort or moderate resort, or the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, will receive the Quick Service Dining Plan free as part of their package. Guests who book a Deluxe resort, will receive the Disney Dining Plan.
If you’re wondering if Disney is including a watered down version of the dining plan in its free dining offer, the answer is no. The dining plans included in the Disney free dining offer are the same plans available to guests who book a hotel room separately and pay for the cost of the dining plan out of pocket. You’ll get the same 2 meals a day with snack and refillable mug free of charge.
For complete terms and conditions, you can view all of the details, as well as other special offers, on our Disney World Discount page.
Is Disney Offering Free Dining in 2024?
In early 2024, Disney announced a free dining offer available for Disney+ subscribers. However, given the rates we’ve been seeing when quoting vacation packages for clients, it may be worth picking up a subscription just to take advantage of this deal.
The current offer covers travel this summer. That means you can book a trip beginning most any night between July 1 and September 30 to take advantage of this offer.
For families of younger children who do not subscribe to Disney+ or who plan to travel earlier this year, Disney is also offering the “Families Play, Dine & Save” offer. With this deal, theme park tickets and dining plans for children under 10 are discounted 50%. It isn’t free dining at Disney World, but the offer is a good value if you’re traveling this spring. The offer is valid for arrival dates most days bewtwen April 7 and June 30.
Will Disney Free Dining Return Again Later in 2024?
The big question on the minds of many is whether Disney free dining will return again this year, given the popularity of the former fall offer. While we’ve seen some Disney bloggers speculating that another wave of free dining will be offered in the fall, we’ve received no confirmation from Disney as to the truth of this rumor.
Typically, Disney free dining is offered to fill empty hotel rooms. Since fewer people now travel to Disney during the summer than years gone by, we weren’t suprised to see one of Disney’s most popular discounts being offered for these dates in 2024.
However, fall has become a much more popular time to travel. In fact, we watched special offers some dates last fall sell out at many hotels.
For Disney to release a second round of free dining, hotel bookings would need to be off pace for fall travel dates. If that happens, we expect that the Disney free dining offer would again be targeted at special groups, such as Disney Visa Cardholders or Disney+ subscribers.
Keep watching for special discounts and offers at Disney World on our Discount page.
So, Is Disney Free Dining Worth it?
To determine whether Disney’s free dining offer is worth booking during your trip, you have to know a few things up front. The first is which on-property resort you plan to book and how set you are on staying there. Not all resorts are available with free dining at Disney for all dates, so you might have to be flexible in your choice of accommodations to remain eligible.
You’ll also need to understand what restaurants you plan to visit, what you’re going to eat there, and how much it will cost you for each day of your trip. This is what you’d be saving with free dining, if you book your room at regular rack rates and pay full price for your park passes.
The tricky part is, you may not have to pay full price for either. Disney usually comes out with a room-only discount within a few months of issuing free dining, roughly covering the same dates. At times, the discount may be enough to make it worth your while to opt out of the free Disney dining plan.
The only way to really determine where you’ll save the most is to figure up what the cost of your room with discount would be, add it to the cost of the food you plan to eat and what you’ll need to pay for park passes. Then, see if it’s more or less than the cost of your Disney free dining package.
Where and what you eat will determine whether you get your money’s worth out of free dining at Disney. A single quick-service breakfast entrée from Centerplace Marketplace at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort now rings in at $10. 36 a plate, but a similar quick service lunch adds up to 11.50. Keep in mind that these prices do not include a drink, a cost that is covered by the Disney Dining plan. If you were to add a single fountain soda beverage, add an additional $4.50. A bottle of water will run you anywhere from ~$2.50 to $4.99, depending on the size of the water and the brand selected.
On the other hand, if you’re eating at a Walt Disney World resort, you could use the refillable mug included in your dining plan. Likewise, if you’re eating at a quick service location in one of the parks or at Disney Springs, your drink is included with the dining plan as is the cost of a dessert.
If you’re wondering how Disney free dining stacks up in real world figures against room only discounts, let’s take a look. We will use the average lunch cost provided above, since most guests use the dining plan for meals later in the day.
Sample booking comparing the 2024 Disney Free Dining offer to the room only discount available during the same time frame
Booking for 2 adults and 2 children over 10 at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort for 5 nights July 21-26
| Booked with room only discount | Vacation booked with Disney Free Dining Offer | ||
| 5 nights Caribbean Beach Resort with room only discount includes 4-day park hopper tickets for 2 adults and 2 kids over 10 | $3885.46 | 5 nights Caribbean Beach Resort with room only discount includes 4-day park hopper tickets for 2 adults and 2 kids over 10 | Included in package total |
| Estimated food costs for all guests for 5 nights, including 2 quick service meals per day with non-alcoholic beverage and one snack | $920.00 | Cost for 2 quick service meals per guest for 5 nights, including either a non alcoholic or alcoholic beverage with each meal and one snack | Included in package total |
| Vacation Total | $4805.46 | Vacation Package Total | $4,379.88 |
On the other hand, if you know how to whittle down your costs and are willing to go through the work of finding the least expensive restaurants and menu items, your dining costs could be lower, making the room only discount a better bargain.
What if I Don’t Want to Scour Menus and Add up Costs?
For the Seconds-to-Go traveler who enjoys more of the spontaneity and less of the worry, calculating out every meal in advance may not be your thing. If you really want to wing it and not have to worry about finding the least expensive restaurants and menu items ahead of time, then keeping track of how much you spend on food during your vacation, then the free Disney dining offer is tailor made for you.
Free dining at Disney is the dreams vacations are made of, providing a near all-inclusive experience. Simply find a restaurant where you’d like to eat, order what you want and enjoy.
It’s up to you, and what’s important when you travel the World.
Have We Ever Booked the Disney Free Dining Plan and What Did We Think?
One of the advantages to any of the Disney dining plans is the simplicity and convenience. Meals are tracked automatically, so paying requires only a swipe of your MagicBand, Key to the World Card or MagicMobile pass. You don’t need to worry about carrying cash and doling out change at the register. For table service meals, your server will even come to your table to swipe your band for payment.
We’ve used the Disney Dining Plan (1 quick service, 1 table service) twice, once with free dining and once without. In the first instance, there were two adults and four children, three of them being under ten. We regrettably left for home with four quick service and several snack credits unused.
Many of Disney’s table-service restaurants are offered buffet-style. The food is usually tasty and options are plentiful. Since we often ate this meal for breakfast or lunch, consuming an additional snack during the day was sometimes enough to satisfy us, without the need for the additional quick-service meal. Other days, we ate both meals to avoid wasting the credits, and still others, we shared quick-service entrees, leaving credits still on our tab at the end of the trip.
However, as the children grew up, we found it far easier to use those dining plan credits. Our second experience with free dining at Disney was far more advantageous. With a college aged student and high school students in tow, we ate every meal offered through the plan and were even able to try some of the newer more exciting (and expensive) options on the menu, since the cost was already included in our vacation package.
Overall, we love the Disney Dining plan and take advantage of free dining at Disney whenever we have the chance.
How to Make the Most of Free Dining at Disney
Since you’ll give up a nice room only discount to book the free dining offer at Disney, you’re probably wondering how to make the most of it. The good news is, Disney’s free dining offer is the better bet for all but the most frugal diners.
However, if you’d still like some tips to maximize your use of the Disney free dining plan, here are some of your best bets:
- Select the most expensive restaurants. For quick service, you can look to locations in EPCOT’s World Showcase or establishments that serve items other than burgers and fries. Satu’li Canteen in Animal Kingdom is one of our favorites.
- Be sure to take advantage of your snack credits. This is particularly true if you book a deluxe resort vacation, since you’ll be receiving the Disney Dining Plan. This option includes one table service meal, and since many of these restaurants offer buffets, you may find yourself too full to really want a snack. If that’s the case, save it for another day and use the following tips for getting the most out of your snack credits
- Maximize your snack credits. There is a wide variety of options available as snacks, from a bag of fruit snacks to a side of macaroni and cheese. Using your snack credits toward higher priced items will help ensure you get the biggest bang for your free Disney dining buck.
- Save snack credits from days when you are not hungry and double them up to use as a meal on a day when you are more hungry. For instance, many counter service restaurants offer side dishes as snack credits. You could order something like a side of macaroni and cheese with a side of baked beans with burnt ends and have a meal by using two snack credits.
These are just a few of the ways that you can optimize your use of the free dining plan, but don’t overlook the convenience factor either. While this is difficult to put a price on, the convenience of eating where you want without counting pennies is a great vacation perk. Best of all, you’ll know exactly what you’ll spend on your Disney vacation before you leave home. Add in the fact that you can easily make payments on your vacation package, and you’ve made vacation budgeting a snap!
